Africa Great Lakes Democracy Watch

Welcome toAfrica Great Lakes Democracy Watch Blog.Our objective is to promote the institutions of democracy,social justice,Human Rights,Peace, Freedom ofExpression, and Respect to humanity in Rwanda,Uganda,DR Congo, Burundi,Sudan, Tanzania, Kenya,Ethiopia, and Somalia. We strongly believe that Africa will develop if only our presidents stop being rulers of men and become leaders of citizens. We support Breaking the Silence Campaign for DR Congo since we believe the democracy in Rwanda means peace inDRC. Follow this link to learn more about the origin of the war in both Rwanda and DR Congo:http://www.rwandadocumentsproject.net/gsdl/cgi-bin/library

Monday, March 19, 2012

By Associated Press, Updated: Monday, March 19, 7:18 AM

JOHANNESBURG — A South African
police detective said Monday a Rwandan businessman offered police a $1
million bribe to free him after his arrest on suspicion of bankrolling
an assassination attempt against an exiled dissident Rwandan general.The trial of those accused of trying to kill Rwandan Lt. Gen. Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa in a June 2010 attempted shooting has exposed a growing web of financial and political intrigue involving Rwanda and South Africa.

Leonard Kanye of the Johannesburg Organized Crimes unit
testified in court on Monday that he arrested Rwandan suspect Pascal
Kanyandekwe at the Johannesburg airport soon after the shooting attempt.
He
said the Rwandan offered the money while handcuffed in the back of a
police car. His seized baggage contained two passports and photographs
of two of five other suspects on trial for the attempted killing.
All six men have pleaded innocent.
The trial resumed Monday for two weeks of testimony after a lengthy series of hearings.Kanye said Kanyandekwe arrived at the Johannesburg airport on July 2, 2010 from
Rwanda. A police officer sent to the airport to find him called his
mobile number and claimed to be a driver sent to pick him up.
In
the unmarked police car, he was formally arrested and read his rights.
Kanyandekwe became edgy and “said we mustn’t arrest him. He would give
us $1 million” if he was taken instead to the Johannesburg district of
Kyalami, said Kanye, a 17-year veteran of the police service.
Prosecutor
Shaun Abrahams said the contents of the Rwandan’s luggage included a
key “almost identical” to one recovered from another arrested Rwandan
suspect, Amani Uriwani, an out-of-work truck driver allegedly recruited
for his contacts with other Rwandans and African immigrants in South
Africa.Kayandekwe, 30, says he was setting up businesses in South Africa.
But
Kanye said his two passports, one identifying him as a national of
Belgium, Rwanda’s former colonial ruler, and the other as a Rwandan,
showed he came to South Africa for the first time just before the
attempted shooting. He entered South Africa twice after the shooting and
again flew from Rwanda to Johannesburg on the day of his arrest.
Photographs
of his alleged accomplices in his luggage showed they were printed by a
digital photo store in Burundi’s capital of Bujumbura.The
Rwandan government has denied involvement in the assassination attempt
outside the Johannesburg home of Nyamwasa, a former Rwandan military
chief who has become a sharp critic of Rwandan President Paul Kagame
since coming to South Africa in 2010.
But Rwandans in exile have accused Kagame of using his agents to hunt down his external foes.Nyamwasa
and dissident leaders accuse Kagame of crushing opponents and trampling
on democracy after helping to end the genocide that left 500,000 people dead in 1994. Kagame was re-elected in 2010, months after Nyamwasa was shot.
Last
year, Nyamwasa was among four former Kagame aides in exile in South
Africa and the United States who were convicted in their absence by a
Rwandan military court for disturbing public order, sectarianism,
criminal conspiracy and threatening state security.
South African
prosecutors have said key witnesses in the politically and
diplomatically sensitive trial have sought police protection in South
Africa because they fear Rwanda’s government.
Testimony in the
South African trial has hinted that shadowy figures were determined to
kill Nyamwasa, trying more than once and offering large amounts of cash
to draw in conspirators.
After Nyamwasa survived the shooting,
prosecutors said the people pursuing him plotted to kill him in his
South African hospital bed. But that case was dropped on lack of
evidence.
Police in Britain last year warned some Rwandans living
there that their lives were in danger after they criticized the
government of the east African nation.
In Sweden, fears were also
raised for the safety of a small community of Rwandans, some of whom run
blogs and online newspapers that are critical of Kagame.
Kayandekwe,
who has appeared in the Johannesburg court dressed in impeccable
business suits, has hired top South African attorneys but has twice been
refused bail.
His co-accused, two Rwandans and three Tanzanians,
have appeared in T-shirts and cotton smocks and have not applied to be
freed on bail since their arrests.Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.